Module Records blog the MFB-VJ Player, a little video sampler, which holds 28 four-second video clips, with a crossfader and some effects. MFB seem to be little known outside Germany, but they have an long history going back to producing early drum machines in the '70s. They also make the can-it-really-be-true MFB Synth II, a tiny, all analog, knob-covered, Minimoog-inspired synth with three oscillators, two envelopes, MIDI, CV-Gate in, sync, PWM, a built-in mini keyboard, patch memories and a built in sequencer which sells for €413 (£218)! They also do the PolyLite, a four-voice poly synth with digital oscillators (3 per voice) and analog filters, for €299. More on MFB from Sequencer.de, and the MFB homepage is here.

Posted by Tom Whitwell.

Comments:

the MFB Synth II does sound great, but, to be accurate, it has DCOs, not VCOs - so it isn't completely analog.

i have an mfb synth lite 2 (the really small one), digital oscillators, analogue filter. it sounds good, except one of the oscillators comes and goes as it pleases. also has some annoying operational quirks (which the manufacturer describes as features!) and often convoluted operation (well there are limited buttons, so not surprising.) a mixed bag, but at least it's tiny.

one of my last roomates expended much time and effort just finding someone in the u.s. who could sell him the mfb-502 drum machine. very disappointing. it was pretty crappity sounding. cheap build, cheap sounds, no redeeming character really. im pretty skeptical of them myself. if it seems too good to be true it probably is.

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The Fan can help an independent musician, because for the majority these Fan control one or more Internet's technologies like : the email, Emule, Podcasting, the blogs, IRate, Mercora, Weed, MSN, etc... In short, many technologies can help an independent musician to diffuse his music on the networks...

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The goal is to organize the meeting of the musician(Flower) and the Fan (Bee).

i've owned a mfb-502 and an mfb synth ii. they're both amazing instruments for the price. the mfb-502's internal sequencer is a little wonky, but it has an amazingly big kick drum. i really like the hand claps too. the synth is awesome; it has _vco's_, not dco's (only the lites have dcos). you can get a lot of the classic kraftwerk sounds out of it with little effort.

The Lites do not have DCOs. They have digital oscillators generated by a microprocessor. Sounds really wonky and bad when trying to do oscillator sync and the like. The filter does sound okay and overall the Lite sounds decent for the money, but it's not all that. Maybe the Synth II fares better.

DCOs are NOT analog.The ICs in Junos (for example) are digital in and digital out.Look at the spec sheet from the makers.Just because a digital signal is treated as analog doesn't make IT analog itself. If that was so, all digital synths and CD players would be considered analog because they end up moving a speaker.

Also it was the Juno 106 that has DCO's. It's publicly agreed upon that the DCO's in this synth are VCO's controlled by a DAC. If that is untrue, however, than, so be it. Honestly I've never had a pre-90's japanese synth break down on me; so I've never worried about the insides. Wish I could say the same about the arps.

Taking a look at the pictures of the MFB lite's circuit board, it would appear that it uses DCO's...the Digital Waveform Generator kind.